Month: March 2016

Just cuz

by digby

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by digby

… it can only be failed.

There they go again, assuming that the answer to their woes is to clamp down even harder on their politicians to be more extreme than the rest of the country.  It’s worked out so well for them:

No House Republican did more to anger anti-abortion groups last year than Rep. Renee Ellmers, the North Carolina lawmaker who last January scuttled legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks. At the time, anti-abortion leaders vowed that they and their members would remember Ellmers’ betrayal during her next primary. 

Apparently, they forgot.

Nearly every one of the country’s most prominent anti-abortion groups have stayed out of Ellmers’ primary, not even offering so much as an endorsement to her opponents – much less the financial and grassroots support vital to defeating an incumbent member of Congress. In fact, a review of independent expenditure documents filed with the Federal Election Commission showed that none of these groups has spent money against Ellmers this year, an eye-opening revelation given the anger that still simmers over the congresswoman’s actions and the importance of abortion to many core GOP voters. 

Indeed, a consortium of influential groups — such as Susan B. Anthony List, Americans United for Life, Concerned Women for America, and the Family Research Council — has actually spent less on the North Carolina race than the American College of Radiology Association PAC. The little-known political action committee has spent about $35,000 backing Ellmers, $35,000 more than the combined efforts of anti-abortion groups.
Anti-abortion groups have more time to organize against Ellmers if they want it – a court’s decision in February to throw out the existing congressional map in North Carolina has pushed back House primaries there from March 15 to June 7. But interviews with leaders of the movement suggest more time won’t change anything because rather than an anomaly, the Ellmers race is a symptom of a broader anti-abortion problem within not just the anti-abortion movement but social conservativism writ large. 

Their assessment is blunt: Leading social conservative organizations are either too cozy with congressional leadership or simply don’t understand the importance of, when necessary, playing rough with lawmakers who vote against them. The consequence is a tangible feeling, on Capitol Hill and beyond, that stepping out of line on issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage carries less of an electoral penalty than defiance on issues such as taxes. That’s because the latter will earn the ire of such well-funded groups as the fiscally focused Club for Growth, which has a well-known history of defeating Republican incumbents. 

The Club, incidentally, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars earlier this year targeting Ellmers over perceived moderation on economic issues. 

“Social-issue groups across the board need to recognize that if there are no consequences to people disagreeing with you, you’re not going to get taken seriously,” said Frank Cannon, a leader within the anti-abortion movement and president of the American Principles Project, a social conservative group. “We spend virtually nothing in directly engaging in elections. And the absence on that is one of the big dramatic flaws … for the social conservative movement.”

Either be as doctrinaire as Ted Cruz or you will lose…oh wait.

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There is no moderate GOP choice.

by digby

So Peter Beinert thinks the best way to save the country from the scourge of Trump is to … help Marco Rubio? Because unlike Trump, Marco Rubio will adhere to the constitution?

This Marco Rubio?

“I believe the world is a safer and a better place when America is the strongest power in the world, and I believe only with a strong America will we defeat this radical group, this apocalyptic group called ISIS,” said Rubio…. “If we capture any of these ISIS killers alive, they are going to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and we’re going to find out everything they know, because when I’m president, unlike Barack Obama, we will keep this country safe.”

Granted, he’s not openly calling for beheading and killing the families of terrorist suspects to make them talk. But it’s pretty clear he means to torture people to “find out everything they know, unlike Barack Obama”.

How about this guy?

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) seems to be going further than even Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in advocating the crackdown of U.S. Muslims. He doesn’t just want to consider shutting down mosques, as Trump says, but wants to shut down “any place where radicals are being inspired.”

“It’s not about closing down mosques. It’s about closing down any place — whether it’s a cafe, a diner, an internet site — any place where radicals are being inspired,” Rubio said on Fox News’ The Kelly File on Thursday night when asked if he agreed with Trump. “The bigger problem we have is our inability to find out where these places are, because we’ve crippled our intelligence programs, both through unauthorized disclosures by a traitor, in Edward Snowden, or by some of the things this president has put in place with the support even of some from my own party to diminish our intelligence capabilities.”

“So whatever facility is being used — it’s not just a mosque — any facility that’s being used to radicalize and inspire attacks against the United States, should be a place that we look at,” he continued.

I don’t think Rubio is as batshit as Trump. But I don’t think he’s someone we should count on to save the republic either. He’s a product of the Tea Party right and has no compunction about going all the way over the cliff if that’s what it takes.

If you don’t want a lunatic, authoritarian, extremist wingnut for president vote for one of the Democrats. Because all the Republicans running are are either lunatics, authoritarians or extremists in various combinations. The Dems aren’t perfect, but they’re better than any of the freaks the other side has on offer at the moment.

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I would have thought that was obvious to any sentient being by this point.